Need You Now
by zyxw
Summary: Song fic with a Fred/Hermione pairing.  Inspired by Lady Antebellum's Need You Now.  Read & Review!  ONE SHOT so please don't subscribe or ask for more.  This is all you're getting.


DISCLAIMER: I OWN NOTHING. JKR STILL OWNS HARRY POTTER & HIS WONDERFUL MAGICAL WORLD. LADY ANTEBELLUM OWNS NEE YOU NOW. ALL I OWN IS MY IMAGINATION…AND SOME CLOTHES. 

Hermione let out a deep sigh as she looked at the clock on her bedside table. One in the morning and she couldn't sleep…again. She'd been lying awake for three hours staring at the dark ceiling before she finally threw back her blankets and rolled out of bed. She fell to her knees and pulled a medium sized box out from its hiding place at the foot of her bed and opened it. His goofy smile and bright eyes stared up at her from inside the box.

One by one she removed pictures and mementos from the box, running a tender finger over his loving face before placing them on the floor and moving on to the next. A dried rose from their first date, a ticket stub from his first muggle film, the bride bouquet that she caught at Ron's wedding to Lavender. It was a shot gun wedding and everyone was surprised that she actually chose to wear white. She giggled at the memory of the jokes he and his twin were making at the bride's expense at their table all night.

It had been a month since they broke up and she hadn't heard from him. She quit attending the Sunday night Weasley dinners and avoided all contact with Ginny for the first week after the younger woman breeched the sensitive subject of the breakup. Hermione couldn't even remember what the fight had been about. All she knew was that she had been right. A fat lot of good that did her now as she sat miserably on her bedroom floor, leaning against the bed he used to share with her and crying over old pictures. He was probably out right now having the time of his life.

She sighed again as she looked at the clock one last time. One fifteen. Without cleaning her mess from the floor she took her favorite picture—the one they'd taken in the muggle photo booth at the carnival where he stared at her like she was the only woman in the world—and climbed back into bed by the light of her wand tip. She lay there crying as she stared at the two of them in happier times.

Picture perfect memories  
>Scattered all around the floor<br>Reaching for the phone 'cause  
>I can't fight it anymore<br>And I wonder if I  
>Ever cross your mind<br>For me it happens all the time  
>It's a quarter after one<br>I'm all alone  
>And I need you now<br>Said I wouldn't call  
>But I've lost all control<br>And I need you now  
>And I don't know how<br>I can do without  
>I just need you now <p>

George stumbled through the door from the weight of his very drunk twin. Tom had flooed thirty minutes ago to ask him to come and pick Fred up. He was too drunk to apparate. Again. George and Angelina were just falling asleep when the call came. They were used to them by now but that didn't make them any less annoying.

The day that Fred had showed up at the landing of the flat above their shop he had been ecstatic. "Finally rid of that overbearing midget!" Fred had cheered before throwing his things into his room—he'd never technically moved out but he hadn't stayed there in six months—and pulling George down to the Leaky Cauldron for a celebratory drink. His elation hadn't lasted long though. After his third shot of firewhiskey—a feat that had only taken him ten minutes—he was crying into his butterbeer about how much he missed Hermione. "She's so clean and organized. Almost as good a cook as mum. And she smells amazing and I miss the way she bites her lip when she's concentrating. And how I tangle my fists in her mass of curls when…" It all started to get a little too vivid for George after that. He didn't like to think of his brother's bedroom habits.

It had been that way every night for a month now. Fred would floo to the Leaky Cauldron after work saying something about finding a bird and forgetting Hermione and George would pick him up at the end of the night as his cried into his shot glass staring at the diamond that Hermione once wore on her left hand.

The first week was easier. They all figured she'd show up at dinner on Sunday night, they'd disappear into one of the many now-empty rooms to talk and they'd be planning their wedding again by the end of the night. But Hermione didn't show up for dinner that night. Fred had to explain to their mum that he and Hermione had broken up after dinner that night. He thought she'd have a heart attack right there. Instead she asked everyone to leave the room. George had peaked through the window to see her sitting in a chair at the table crying. She did that a lot lately usually whispering something about wanting talented and sensible grandbabies.

"It's been a month, mate," George sighed as he prepared two cups of tea. "You need to either fix this or try to move on."

"How do you move on from Hermione Granger?" Fred moaned.

"Dunno but you have to figure it out or fix it! I personally vote for fixing it. I kind of got used to having the bookworm around. I feel less intelligent when she's gone."

Fred grunted his laughter.

"What'd you two fight over anyway?"

"I don't even remember," Fred groaned. "All I know is she was right and I miss her."

"Then you need to do something about it."

"I know. I know. Fix it."

"It's a quarter after one," George finally told him after a long silence. "I'm going to bed. Do what you have to but all I know is that you're miserable without her."

Another shot of whiskey  
>Can't stop looking at the door<br>Wishing you'd come sweeping  
>In the way you did before<br>And I wonder if I  
>Ever cross your mind<br>For me it happens all the time  
>It's a quarter after one<br>I'm a little drunk  
>And I need you now<p>

Fred stuck his head into the floo and called "Hermione Granger's apartment." It lit up green and he waited.  
>Said I wouldn't call<br>But I've lost all control  
>And I need you now <p>

Hermione heard the whoosh of her floo igniting in the other room but she continued to lay in bed crying. There was no way it was the one person she wanted to see right now so what was the use in dragging herself out of bed and into the other room? 

And I don't know how  
>I can do without<br>I just need you now

It may have been the exorbitant amount of whiskey sloshing around in his nearly empty stomach and getting to his head but suddenly Fred couldn't just sit in his brother's flat anymore. Because really this was George's flat, even if both of their names were on the dead. His home was with Hermione. He was an idiot to leave and all he wanted to do now was get back there. Even if she made him sleep in the guest room for the next year, he wanted to go home.

Grabbing a handful a floo powder, Fred stepped into the fireplace and called "Home." In moments he was gone.

He was so drunk that he couldn't keep his balance when he landed in Hermione's fireplace. He toppled to the floor.

Hermione heard the commotion from her bed but figured it was Harry, or more likely Ron. They'd been randomly checking on her for a few weeks now. Making sure she was eating regularly, cleaning, and otherwise taking care of herself. It was on Ginny and Lavender's command after they popped in to see her sitting in a filthy living room, watching the tele in sweats with her hair matted. It was the weekend after Fred left and she had decided that if she didn't have to shower, she wouldn't. She also hadn't eaten for two days at that point. She wanted to look just as miserable as she felt. She wouldn't make that mistake again.

But she would continue to lay in her bed and cry when they insisted on barging in in the middle of the night. They said she had to be clean and fed, not happy and hospitable.

Fred heard sobs coming from the room that he and Hermione used to share. If someone had hurt his love he'd murder them, he thought as he pounded toward the room. Opening the door, her sobs got louder. He could see her shaking in the bed but her back was to him. He took a step into the room before something very sharp stabbed the bottom of his foot.

He threw the light switch on and pulled a now destroyed dry rose from his heel.

"Turn the bloody light off, Harry," Hermione barked from the bed. "I'm clean and well-fed and am trying to sleep. If you don't believe me feel free to check the showers and I'll even let you weigh me in the morning."

He barely heard her as he stared at the remnants of their relationship scattered on the floor and the blue comforter she was curled under—his blue comforter.

"Doesn't sound like you're sleeping to me," he finally said as he obeyed and turned the lights out.

He could see her outline as she rolled over. "Fred!" she cried, trying frantically to wipe the tears from her eyes. "What…what are you doing here?"

He took the picture she was clutching in her hand and by the light of his own wand examined it before placing it on their bedside table next to their clock. "I miss you," he answered, kneeling by the bed and cupping her cheek in his hand. "I've missed you for a month now and I can't miss you anymore. I'm sorry. Please…please let me come home. I'll stay in the guest room if you like or the couch or the floor if I have to but I want to be here. I want to be with you. I love you 'Mione."

"I love you too," she replied lifting the comforter as an invitation for him to join her.

Fred removed his shirt and jeans before laying down in the bed with her in his boxers.

Hermione laid her head on his chest just over his heart and sighed contentedly before adding. "I'm sorry too."

Whoa, whoa  
>Guess I'd rather hurt<br>Than feel nothing at all  
>It's a quarter after one<br>I'm all alone  
>And I need you now<br>And I said I wouldn't call  
>But I'm a little drunk<br>And I need you now  
>And I don't know how<br>I can do without  
>I just need you now<br>I just need you now 

Fred prepared breakfast the next morning, making sure to clean his mess when he was through, remembering during the night what the argument had been about. He'd even woken up extra early to go to the flower market down the street to replace the rose he'd destroyed the night before with a dozen more.

Hermione reached out for Fred when she woke the next morning but her hands only met rumbled sheets. She let a tear fall thinking about how stupid she had been. Of course he hadn't missed her. He was drunk and wanted an easy shag. And stupid her, she had given him just that. She rolled out of bed and stumbled into the kitchen, wiping the tears from her face and intending to make herself a cup of tea—her new usual breakfast.

"What's got you crying now, love?" Fred asked from the dining room where he'd been sitting and waiting for her to wake up. "It seems that's all you did all night."

"You're…you're still here," she stammered in shock.

"Of course I'm still here, silly. I told you last night that I wanted to come home."

"But I woke up and you were gone and-"

"I got up early to make you breakfast. I have something very important to ask you," he replied escorting her to a chair and sitting her down in front of her new roses. "I destroyed that old dead one on your floor last night. I thought I should probably replace it," he explained before kneeling in front of her and pulling her diamond ring from his pocket. "I promise to do better," he told her, his voice cracking. "I'll always clean my mess from now on and I'll call if I'm going to be late and I'll be the man you deserve from now on and for the rest of our lives. Will you marry me?"

She only nodded as he slid the ring back into its rightful spot on her left hand.

Oh baby, I need you now


End file.
